Pathfinder - The Antipaladin Handbook

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Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

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Introduction

The Antipaladin is mechanically very similar to the Paladin, but the differences
in their abilities reflect the difference in their alignments. Where the Paladin is
a capable warrior supplemented by healing and support abilities, the Antipaladin drops
all pretense of healing and support in favor of additional damage output and debuff
options. The Antipaladin gets every social skill except Diplomacy, so if you plan to play
a Face be sure to use a trait to pick up Diplomacy as a class skill.

The Antipaladin is an alternate class of the Paladin, so any archetypes, feats,
or class features for which the Antipaladin has the correct ability applies to the
Antipaladin. Many of the Antipaladin's abilities are identical to Paladin abilities
but with different names, so consult your GM about using options which apply to Paladins
with your Antipaladin.

Antipaladin Class Features

Saves: Despite a "bad" Reflex saves, Unholy Resilience
gives the Antipaladin some of the best saves in the game.

Proficiencies: Heavy armor, shields, and martial weapons.

Skills: 2+ skill ranks and not a lot of options.

Aura of Evil (Ex): This hardly ever matters.

Detect Good (Sp): Situational.

Smite Good (Su): Your enemies will primarily be good,
and Smite Good gives you a pile of damage and a nice bonus to AC. It remains useful
at any level, and is limited only by the small number of uses per day.

Touch of Corruption (Su): The damage behind Touch of
Corruption is not the primary draw. Instead, look at the effects of Cruelties. Also
note that Touch of Corruption does not allow you to use it on yourself as a swift
action the same way that a Paladin can. Your GM may allow you to do so if you are
healed by negative energy, but check with your GM to be sure.

Aura of Cowardice (Su): While this is normally not
very helpful, it becomes very useful when you pick up the Shaken and Frightened
cruelties.

Plague Bringer (Ex): Immunity to disease becomes important
at high levels when disease and poison become more common, but not as important as it
is for good-aligned characters because good-aligned outsiders don't typically use
poison or disease.

Shaken: A nice debuff, and Aura of Cowardice
imposes a -4 penalty on the save.

Sickened: A slightly better debuff than
Shaken, but you can't stack Sickened to get better debuffs.

6th-level

Dazed: Rob the target of their next turn.
Very tempting, but hard to justify compared to the durations of other
options.

Diseased: This opens up a variety of useful
ability damage options. Blinding Sickness is always a favorite.

Staggered: Nice for enemies who depend on
full attacks, and a decent duration.

9th-level

Cursed: Three options, all of which are
excellent.

Exhausted: Hardly better than Fatigued.

Frightened: Frightened enemies run away
unless they are cornered, effectively taking them out of combat for several
rounds.

Nauseated: Doesn't make the target run, but
prevents them from fighting back for several rounds.

Poisoned: Constitution damage is terrifying
and frequently lethal, and it lowers the targets save against the poison
and potential additional Cruelties.

12th-level

Blinded: Use Diseased with Blinding Sickness
and the target is permanently blinded and takes Strength damage.

Deafened: Only effects spellcasters, and
even then not very well.

Paralyzed: Save or suck. Coupe de grace next
round.

Stunned: If you can't afford to take a coupe
de grace for some reason, stun the target for a few rounds and come back
to them later.

Channel Negative Energy (Su): Very difficult to bring
into play without hurting your allies unless your party heals based on negative
energy. Even then, your saving throw won't be great. If you insist on using Channel
Energy, see my
Practical Guide to Channel Energy.

Spells: Antipaladins are 1/2 casters, and their spell
list strongly resembles the Paladin spell list. However, the Antipaladin lacks many
of the Paladin's best buffs because they are good-aligned and lack alignment-agnostic
versions.

Fiendish Boon (Sp): Both options are fantastic. The
ability to enhance your weapon can solve a lot of problems, including DR, but fiendish
companions offer a lot of amazing options. For help with Fiendish Companions, see my
Practical Guide to Fiendish
Companions.

Aura of Despair (Su): This has the fantastic side-effect
of making enemies more susceptible to your Touch of Corruption, but your allies will
also appreciate the penalty against their spells and abilities.

Aura of Vengeance (Su): Fantastic, but remember that
allies must still use a swift action to activate Smite Good.

Unholy Champion (Su): Good, but not great. The Banishment
effect forcible ends your Smite even if it fails, and you can't choose to forego the
effect. Personally I would rather outright kill the outsider so that it can't come back.

Abilities

The Antipaladin's abilities are much the same as any heavy armored melee character,
but the Antipaladin's divine abilities add a dependence on Charisma.

Str: The Antipaladin is a strictly melee class, which
means that you need Strength.

Dex: You need 12 to fill out full plate, but even
that isn't strictly necessary, especially if you plan to use a shield.

Con: As a front-line character, hit points are always
important.

Int: The Antipaladin's skill list is very short, and
more skill ranks won't fix that. Unless you plan to play a Face, dump Intelligence.

Wis: Only required for will saves, and Unholy Resilience
and the Antipaladin's good Will saves greatly reduce this dependence.

Cha: Powers many of the Antipaladins important abilities,
include Unholy Resilience.

25 Point Buy

20 Point Buy

15 Point Buy

Elite Array

Str: 16

Dex: 12

Con: 14

Int: 10

Wis: 8

Cha: 16

Str: 16

Dex: 12

Con: 14

Int: 10

Wis: 8

Cha: 14

Str: 14

Dex: 12

Con: 14

Int: 10

Wis: 8

Cha: 14

Str: 15

Dex: 12

Con: 13

Int: 8

Wis: 10

Cha: 14

Races

Bonuses to Strength and Charisma are great, and medium size is helpful if you want
to be enlarged.

Dwarf: The Charisma penalty is annoying, but the Dwarf's
other racial traits still make it a viable option. The bonuses to Constitution and
Wisdom offset most of the lost bonus from Unholy Resilience, and the Dwarf's other abilities
complement the Antipaladin's natural durability very well. Unfortunately the Dwarf
favored class bonus adds to Concentration, which is nearly worthless for Antipaladins.

Elf: Nothing useful for the Antipaladin.

Gnome: Despite small size and a strength penalty, the
Gnome isn't completely awful as an Antipaladin. Bonuses to both Constitution and
Charisma work well with the Antipaladin's abilities, but many of the Gnome's other
abilities may be wasted. The Gnome Paladin favored class bonus adds to Lay of Hands
healing, so you could reasonably alter it to improve Touch of Corruption damage.

Half-Elf: The flexible ability bonus is nice, and
the Half-Elf has some nice alternate racial features which can work well for the
Antipaladin. The Half-Elf's favored class bonus expands the area of the Paladin's
auras. Considering the Antipaladin has 5 auras (not counting Aura of Evil), this can
be a fantastic buff. If you're happy with your aura range, pick up the Human favored
class bonus for some permanent energy resistance.

Half-Orc: Flexible ability bonus and some nice racial
abilities which complement the Antipaladin well. Unfortunately, the Half-Orc favored
class bonus is awful, so pick up the Human favored class bonus for some permanent
energy resistance.

Halfling: A little less effective than the Gnome because
the Dexterity bonus isn't as helpful.

Human: Always a good option, and the Human favored class
bonus adds energy resistance to one type of energy. Pick up a few points in the four
basic energy types (acid, cold, electricity, fire), but don't worry about sonic.
Remember that this resistance stacks with magical energy resistance such as the Resist
Energy spell.

Skills

Bluff (Cha): Essential if you plan to play a Face.

Disguise (Cha): Too situational.

Handle Animal (Cha): The Fiendish Companion is not
technically an animal companion, and you can't teach it tricks.

Intimidate (Cha): Essential if you plan to play a
Face.

Knowledge (religion) (Int): One of the most important
Knowledge skills.

Stealth (Dex): In full plate you're not going to have
much luck sneaking around.

Feats

Adept Champion: Technically requires Smite Evil,
but any reasonable GM should allow this to work with Smite Good. This can add an
impressive bonus to your CMB at the expense of damage.

Extra Channel: The Antipaladin isn't good at
channeling energy.

Extra Lay On Hands: 4 levels worth of additional
uses of Touch of Corruption. If you like Touch of Corruption a lot, this is worth
considering.

Extra Mercy: Being active instead of reactive,
Touch of Corruption has the luxury of not needing to guess what you might need.
You get to pick what you want, and everyone else gets to save or suck. Where a
Paladin might need an extra Mercy to cover an additional potential crippling
effect, the Antipaladin can already get all of the good Cruelty options
without spending a feat.

Unsanctioned Knowledge: Intelligence is a dump stat
for Antipaladins, but Unsanctioned Knowledge can open up a lot of really great
spell options. Clerics in particular have a lot of really great buffs, and many
have long durations. Magic Vestments, for example, is a 3rd-level Cleric spell
with hours/level duration that can save you a fortune on armor enhancement.
However, remember that Antipaladins get very few spells per day.

Channel Smite: An excellent way to get some burst
damage, but the target still gets a Will save to halve the damage.